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Thursday, August 23, 2012

The man behind the food blogger

I'm not a "full time" food blogger. I mean I cook every single day (except Saturdays if I'm lucky) but I don't document the process of everything every single day or work on recipes once or twice a day because I think I would twitch. But that doesn't mean I don't spend time trying to come up with new recipes not just for us but you guys too. You all made me want to be on my game presentation wise so of course I had to get some pretty plates...

bowls...

glasses...

placemats and napkins...

frillies...

stuff I have no idea why I bought them...

I don't do my shopping on my own. Oh no. The Mr luckily was used to being dragged from store to store as a kid with his mom so he's got a shopping gene. When he's on a mission, he's 50 steps ahead of me. When I'm on a mission he patiently waits for me to check out all of Sur La Table's newest items, World Market's latest line of dishes or even cupcake liners at the grocery store. Nowhere is safe from my eagle eye. Everything I consider buying I hold up and say "this is pretty!" or "do you like this?" I get a smile and nod or if we've been there too long an "mmm hmm." (Translation- "I love you but seriously...another plate?")

There are days he comes home to a clean house. There are days he comes home to this...

He wonders aloud how the dishwashing liquid could be low again. (I should've bought stock in Cascade or Finish before I started this! I feel like I keep their companies in the black.)

He looks at 30 pictures of the same thing at slightly different angles and says "I like that one." Most of the time you use it, sometimes you don't but you don't tell him you liked a different one.

He is a proofreader because despite you reading your post twice, he's still able to spot 2 typos that your brain hazed over before you hit publish. {I'm proofing now- The Mr.}

He patiently waits for you to take pics of your dinners for food journal posts even though you tell him to go ahead.

He listens as you prattle on about flavor combinations, ambitious plans you have for different seasons, supports your food hoarding for future projects and then reminds you to check the expiration dates before you go on baking sprees.

He begins to see something in stores on his own and says "hey, this might look good in a picture" and you smile because you love how supportive he is and doesn't think of your blog as a perceived "hobby" like everyone else you know

There is nothing I love more than seeing "the look" on his face. Other food bloggers know what I'm talking about. That look of utter bliss, eyes rolling in the back of the head and can't stop talking about it from beginning to end. Then you've also got the "it's good" in a high pitched voice which means "you might like it but please don't put this into regular rotation."

My experimentation has taken a man who hated brussels sprouts into someone who asks "one bag or two?" and says they're one of his favorite side dishes. It's shown him that changing your lifestyle doesn't mean sacrificing flavor and mouth watering meals. I'm grateful for that because 10 years ago, our idea of lifestyle change meant restriction and deprivation. Every recipe I create is to please the man behind the food blogger and you guys reap the benefits.

What's your favorite homemade recipe whether it's one you make all the time or a family recipe passed down through the years?

It was very much the same thing with my hubby and I. We were brought up on what I call Mid-Western Fare. Beef, potatoes of any kind all slathered with gravy. In 2002 I came across a Cooking Light Magazine and thought I would try some of the recipes in it. We were hooked. I experiment with some many different spices and foods now that it makes it all fun. I love wondering "what next?".

I make a mean lasagna - rarely. Hubby makes the best potato soup in the world and I've finally gotten him to switch from heavy cream to fat free half and half. I love to make cookies so pretty much any cookie recipe is good, as long as I don't have to eat them all myself.

I have always found that when I don't allow myself to eat anything and everything I see, that what I DO eat tastes so much better. Haven't you noticed that at buffets (which I try not to frequent much anymore)? How maybe the first time through the line, the food is pretty good, but then you're full and you just keep going back for me and eating it because it's there, but it doesn't even taste all that good? I think I really appreciate food so much more now and enjoy it. I never even used to allow myself to get hungry, and that's when food tastes the best. I was a constant grazer--not eating a lot at any one time--but eating ALL THE TIME!

A recipe I tried the other night (then had leftovers for lunch the next day), is a salad made with that butter lettuce. I bought mine in a bag, it is so tender and sweet! To that I added some chopped celery, sliced radishes, sliced cucumbers, mandarin oranges, and quartered some fresh strawberries. I threw in a little shredded Parmesan, and some roasted almonds, then topped it all with the Panera NON-fat poppyseed dressing, that I found at Target! Oh, at the last minute, I had some Bing cherries sitting on the table, so I sliced a few of those up and pitted them and threw them in too. Delicious! That Panera dressing is only 30 calories for a 2-tablespoon serving. I tried making the poppyseed dressing myself, but the recipe I had called for a lot of oil and sugar, so this Panera stuff is definitely a better option! I have also had that salad with chopped chicken breast or shrimp, which is very tasty too, you could even add some left over grilled steak. The leftover grilled chicken breast we had was so super tough, that I didn't even bother to put it in my salad, I was sure it would ruin it. When I have tried this salad with the spinach you buy in bags, there are pieces of the spinach that get all wilted and yucky, but the butter lettuce was still fresh the next day, even with the fruit cut up in there. It tasted as good for my lunch the next day as it did the night before! That is the sign of a GOOD SALAD. Usually when I make salad myself, it just doesn't taste as good as when you get one at a restaurant, or if somebody else makes it, but this one even passed that test. I made it and it still tasted great to me. And I have eaten a lot of salad over the last 2 1/2 years, got pretty burnt out on it, so for a salad to taste that good to me again--that's a miracle!

Can you tell I LOVE talking about food? I love your food posts, but can't read a regular food blogger, if they cook food that isn't low-fat, because it just makes me too hungry. For the same reason, I had to quit watching most of the cooking shows on TV.

I love this blog - such a sweet glimpse into the loving, nurturing relationship you two share. It made me want to be a better cook and feed my guy better meals!

My favorite recipe is a Thai noodle dish that my sweetie discovered on Sparkpeople.com. It's loaded with fresh veggies, seasoned with fresh garlic, ginger, peanut butter, and other savory flavors, and it is mouthwatering and filling and very healthy. We make it about once a month because we don't want to burn out on it. After about a month of waiting, we are delighted to eat it again!

Love that the Mr. is so supportive and understanding--you got a good guy there, hang onto him. Mine is much the same; he has (grudgingly) become a runner and loves it now as much as me. He has also endured long softball games while I played this summer to support me. What a guy!

My favorite family recipe is definitely not diet friendly, but it is amazing, a fudge recipe my mother swore was from See's Candy. Definitely a holiday treat best cut into small pieces, savored, and shared with others. Most recipes call for marshmallow creme; this one uses marshmallows instead, and if done right it is so smooth and creamy, it just melts in your mouth.

That is so funny! Thanks for sharing this, sometimes we don't know all the details that go into everything.

So my favorite meal, not healthy, is my Grandma's beef roast with mashed potatoes and gravey, homemade bread and peas. I CANNOT recreate her beef roast for the life of me. She makes it sound so easy, gives me a recipe and I still can't do it. I think she's hiding something from me. By far the best cook I've ever know (mostly because she puts butter on everything). Love you Grandma!

I still get a groan now and again when I tell him to "wait! I'm taking pictures!" I don't know that I have the patience to be a food blogger, but I love trying out other people's things, putting my own spin on it and then savoring the amazingness of it. Of course the kids always know to bring my phone in when it's time to cook (usually it holds both the recipes we need and the camera). I don't know if I'd have so much fun changing our lifestyle if I didn't have everyone to share the results with. ;)

Favorite meal? One that will never ever ever be topped? One that I will eat until the day I die even though it contains all of those things we're not supposed to love but absolutely do? It's not even a meal at all but a side dish. It only pops up at special dinners (like Thanksgiving) and I can gorge myself on it until I'm sick and still feel mighty happy that I ate it. Cheesy Potatoes. Hands down, best thing ever. You pull out this in one hand and a slice of the most delicious chocolate cake ever (which you know I'm a sucker for) topped with ice cream and hot fudge - I'll take the potatoes (and still beg for the cake after). Last year, even when I was trying to be good at Thanksgiving, I decided that I would cut my calories, sure...but I would do it by not eating nonsense I didn't care about. It's a carb-filled starch-overload day and always will be - mashed potatoes from scratch, cheesy potatoes, and stuffing from a box. I can live on that all day and nothing else...and I do. NOM! (OMG...now I want cheesy potatoes! How long until Thanksgiving?)

I don't blog as much as I would like anymore, but I'm always taking pictures of food and such to share on my Produce Group FB page....my hubby isn't quite as tolerant. He doesn't complain, but it would be nice to get a pat on the back every once in a while. Oh well....

Let him know. Sometimes I think they don't realize what a little encouragement can do. I couldn't stop smiling when I made our dinner (a new recipe) and he said he was proud of me because I made the whole thing from scratch. Tell your man he can reap the bennies in more ways than one if he strokes your ego! ;)

I do love your blog, it is so much fun to read. I'm back from Alaska now and can get more into them again. After reading this blog all I thought about was a girl I use to work with. Her husband, at the time, was just a meat and potato guy so she loved to do a lot of experimenting to get him away from just meat and potatoes. When they were done eating dinner she would ask him "well how was it" if she got "look at it this way, I would never wake up in the middle of the night craving it" she knew it wasn't a meal to make again. It's too bad when someone doesn't allow, or let themselves, appreciate new foods, they are the ones that are losing out. Keep up the experiments and letting us know, please!

Welcome back and thanks for the compliments! I think as long as people are open to stuff, there's always room to step outside of that box. Some of our favorite dishes are things we never thought we'd eat!

I just want to say that I have few goals for myself - 1.) Get to a healthy weight, and 2.) have an awesome marriage. Coming to this blog and reading about your life together gives me hope that both are possible to achieve.

Thanks baby! It's easy to support you because I am so proud of you that I'm practically busting at the seams with pride and it is nice to finally see you getting recognition for all your hard work!

I think I need to come up with a dish of my own that I can make for you so you can have a break sometime. I do appreciate all the wonderful meals you make. Even if it means I have to wait for you to take pics first!

i love, love, LOVE your dishes and all the other beautiful bows and baubles you use to make your food so beautiful. It makes my eyes happy even before I read the ingredients and my mouth waters! Bravo for the Mr. I have that editing gene, too, and have threatened to flush my cell phone when news alert test messages contain horrendous errors. It is a rare, rare thing for me to read an article or book and not find mistakes. I think I was an editor in another life. lol I was, however, denied that shopping gene. Hats off to you for being such a GREAT shopper and being so incredibly creative. *applause*

Thanks for taking the time to comment! I appreciate thoughtful readers like you! If your comment doesn't show up right away, check back in a few minutes. I promise it'll get posted. The system can get a little glitchy. (Rude or spammy comments will be deleted. Fair warning.)

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About Me

I've lost over 200 lbs the old fashioned way with some more to go. I'm doing this with my hubby (The Mr) and he has lost 190 lbs so far. I wanted to share my journey as well and give people with a lot of weight to lose hope that this can be done without surgery or cutting out entire food groups! Passionate about photography, cooking, traveling, DIY and anything 80's.

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